It has been not so long since the Indian Railways have launched the system of online ticket booking procedure. Most of the people find this facility useful as they could avoid traveling all the way to the railway station or to any 3rd party institution to get their tickets booked. However, the same facility also allows the user to cancel the booked tickets in case the person does not want to travel.
Yes, he/she could cancel the ticket the same way he/she booked the ticket online. However, there are rules to be followed. The tickets could be canceled only based on these cancellation rules.
IRCTC ticket cancellation rules
- If the ticket is fully confirmed, the user is eligible to cancel the ticket any time before 4-hours of the trains scheduled departure.
- If the ticket is “Reservation against Cancellation (RAC)” or “Waitlist”, then the user is eligible to cancel the ticket any time before 30-minutes of the trains scheduled departure.
- Tickets once booked online cannot be canceled through the offline method. In other words, cancellation of online booked tickets cannot be done at a ticket counter in any railway stations.
- Tatkal tickets cannot be canceled under any circumstances and the user will not be eligible for any refund.
- If the train is canceled due to any circumstances, the tickets could be canceled within 3-days of the scheduled departure of the train or 3-days from the journey date.
IRCTC ticket cancellation charges
Yes, IRCTC tickets if canceled could cost you some cash, the amount you are eligible to receive after cancellation depends upon the duration between the cancellation and the scheduled train departure time. Here are the details
If the ticket cancellation is done at any time before 48-hours of train’s scheduled departure, then, the cancellation charges would be.
The amount mentioned below is the flat charge that would be deduced from the ticket fare
- AC First Class or Executive Class – INR 240
- AC 2 Tier or First Class – INR 200
- AC 3 Tier or AC Chair car or AC 3 Economy – INR 180
- Sleeper Class – INR 120
- Second Class – INR 60
If the ticket cancellation is done at any time between 48-hours to 12-hours of train’s scheduled departure, then, the cancellation charges would be.
An amount that could be 25% of the ticket fare and would be subject to the minimum flat rate mentioned above.
If the ticket cancellation is done at any time only within 12-hours to 4-hours before train’s scheduled departure, then, the cancellation charges would be.
An amount that could be 50% of the ticket fare and would be subject to the minimum flat rate mentioned above.
PS: The amount mentioned above would be deducted per passenger
The time taken to refund the amount after IRCTC ticker cancellation
IRCTC tickets if canceled within the period mentioned above, the user is eligible to receive the refund amount after the deduction of cancellation charges. The amount would be refunded to the same account through which the payment was made for booking the ticket, if the account belonged to an agent, the user will have to collect the refund amount from the agent.
The refund process usually takes about 4-5-days to complete. However, it could vary depending on the status of IRCTC and the respective bank account to which the amount has to be credited. In most cases, the refund process would be completed within a period of 5-7-days. In rare case scenarios, the refund would be completed within a period of 10-days.
IRCTC Online Ticket Cancellation
Here is the systematic procedure to cancel the IRCTC ticket Online
Canceling an IRCTC ticket is not too complicated if you have already used the website for booking your ticket. However, here is how to do it.
Step 1: Open your web browser and navigate to the IRCTC official website or you could click here to go directly to the website https://www.irctc.co.in/nget/
Step 2: You could have already been on this website for booking the ticket. If yes, the website would log in to your IRCTC account. If not, log in to your account using the credentials. (Username and Password) in case you forgot, you could simply click on the request OTP button below it and get a one-time password (OTP) on your registered mobile number and then login to your IRCTC account using it.
Step 3: Once, you are logged into your IRCTC account. On the left-hand side navigation bar “Trains“, you could find the option “Cancel Ticket”. Select this option.
Step 4: Now, a list or history of booked tickets will appear on the screen. Click the ticket to be canceled.
Step 5: Click the option “Cancel Ticket” and a new table with the passenger details will appear on the same screen below.
Step 6: Select the passengers whose tickets you need to cancel from the column that says “Status Report”
Step 7: Once, you have clicked to select the passengers whose tickets needed to be canceled. Click the “Cancel Ticket” button below.
Step 8: A new dialog box appears on the screen prompting for confirmation of cancellation. Hit the “OK” button on the dialog box.
Step 9: Now the website will display the “Cancellation Status Details”, this would include the PNR-number, Train number, date of travel, from and to stations, reservation up to, boarding point, class, the total amount you paid, the cancellation charges, and the cash refund.
As mentioned in the above section, once the cancellation is done, that amount would be credited to your bank account automatically within 5-7-days. However, if you have made a partial cancellation and there are still passengers traveling, then you will have to click the “Print ERS (English)” or “Print ERS (Hindi)” button on the page that says “Cancellation Status Details” after the Step 9 mentioned above.
Conclusion
Launching the IRCTC online booking and cancellation portal and system is one of the few best things the Indian Railways has done recently. Use the IRCTC online portal and save your time and energy.
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Santosh Kumar, He is a SEO + Blogger have 12 years of experience in writing tutorial, informative and product reviews topics.
